Revelation is the act of revealing or disclosing (see etymology), or in the theological perception, making something obvious and clearly understood through active or passive communication with the divine, "which could not be known apart from the unveiling" (Goswiller 1987 p. 3) .

In monotheistic religions, revelation is the process, or act of making divine knowledge understood, often through direct ontological realization which transcends the human state and reaches into the divine intellect.

Revelation in a religious sense can originate from God, a deity, or their agents such as an angel, and discloses a willed outcome, principles, behaviors, laws and doctrines; this fact of an outcome is the "realized principle" (or "realizing principle").

Some religions have religious texts viewed as sacred and revealed by the Divine, the monotheistic religions often viewing them as the "Word of God".

Scriptural hermeneutics

Throughout religious history, some scholars and students of religious texts have sought to mine the wealth of their meanings, by developing a variety of different systems of hermeneutics. Philosophical hermeneutics, in particular, can be seen as a development of scriptural hermeneutics, providing a theoretical backing for various interpretive projects. Thus, philosophical hermeneutics and scriptural hermeneutics can be seen as mutually reinforcing concepts.

Rabbi Ishmael of the Amoraic era of Judaism interpreted laws from the Torah through 13 hermeneutic principles. This is the first appearance of hermeneutics in the World, through the exegetic interpretation of Biblical texts.

Biblical hermeneutics refers to methods of interpreting the Bible. Biblical hermeneutics is part of the broader hermeneutical question, relates to the problem of how one is to understand Holy Scripture. By definition, this is a theological act, ie. part of the discourse of a faith-community. This does not mean that it is of no relevance to those who do not consider themselves to be part of that community, but rather that it is an issue that arises out of the particular needs of that community.

Therefore, one ought to differentiate between Christian and Jewish Biblical hermeneutics: although there is an overlap between the two (and some form of dialogs), since they share part of their scriptures, they do arise out of different faith traditions and thus developed their own notion of hermeneutics.

It must also be stressed that theological differences within these faith communities preclude any 'definitive' statement on Biblical hermeneutics.

Pesher is a Hebrew word meaning "interpretation" in the sense of a "solution". It became known from one group of texts, numbering some hundreds, among the Dead Sea Scrolls. The pesharim (plural of Pesher) take a book of the Hebrew Bible, often from the prophets, such as Habakkuk, Nahum, or from the Psalms, quote it phrase by phrase, and after each quotation insert an interpretation, preceded by "its Pesher is".